My Pet Slug

Description

A few years ago my brother’s wife served us desert crepes with fresh-picked raspberry sauce drizzled on top. I lowered my fork to cut off a morsel and noticed my serving was moving across the plate. Ha! I thought I’ll show them and continued as if I was going to slice off a piece of the 8-inch banana slug. “Stop! Stop! It’s a slug,” everyone shouted in unison. Molly’s chair flew to the other side of the room as she leaped across the table, snatched my plate and ran to the kitchen. She picked the little guy off the plate with her thumb and forefinger, rinsed him off and carefully placed him under a fern in her back yard to live and slime happily ever after.

Fast forward a few years to the summer of 2011. I was about to sink a spade into a pot of ferns on our front porch when something shiny caught my eye – there, where the blade was about to cut into the soil, snoozed a spotted, green 8-inch banana slug. The impatiens could wait until tomorrow to be planted. I was sure the slime bucket was just passing through. A week later, I realized we had a new tenant.

I’ll share the humorous, dramatic, tragic story of how, in spite of my initial revulsion, the little animal became a family pet and permanently changed my appreciation of nature, photography and beauty.